Monday, October 06, 2008

Police TASER™ a runaway sheep

"Police zapped a runaway sheep that was blocking traffic with a Taser stun gun, a weapon issued for use in violent situations.Motorists trapped in the traffic jam caused when the sheep got out of a field in north Wales in Britain were horrified to see the sheep stunned by police then carried to the side of the road where it continued to convulse, the Daily Mail reported"

Unfortunately the article is a little short on details.Was the sheep carrying a concealed weapon?Did it have a "pre-existing medical condition"?Did the sheep ignore police demands to turn around with its hands up?

Last year the Home Office eased restrictions on the use of stun guns so that they could be used "where officers are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves and or the subjects of their action".

OK, but what if those officers had encountered more than just the one sheep wandering in traffic?

Forbes is pretty excited about a whole new line in sheeple crowd control tech :"A License To Not Quite Kill"Taser Shockwave"If one Taser is a powerful deterrent, imagine six or 18 stacked side-by-side. The Shockwave offers what Taser International calls "Remote Area Denial." When the weapon is fired, six Taser cartridges fire in a 20 degree arc, incapacitating anyone in their path. ""Use Shockwave defensively to create a perimeter around rioters ... and a mob of unruly individuals can be corralled into a corner. Or fire the device into a crowd, and several targets go down in a temporarily paralyzed heap."

A heap o' sheep!Seven more new devices include a TASER™ shell that can be fired from a gun; Active Denial System, a heat ray that can make targets feel as if their skin is catching fire; a two-foot diameter laser that can temporarily blind a vehicle's driver; and an electrically-charged riot shield from Stinger that "causes painful shocks and incapacitation".

"Police officers are paid to enforce the law, not to get hurt," says TASER™ spokesman Steve Tuttle. "Police need this."